In about mid 1944 we three children had
returned to Manila, the capital, to live with my mother and my
stepfather.

We lived in Ermita at 12 Plaza Ferguson. This is the place described
in the book "The Battle for Manila", where the authors state "The
foulest organized incident in modern warfare" occurred.

My mother is an American, married to a Filipino. She and Europeans
had to live in the Ermita section of Manila. I mention this because
many years later I was told Japanese xenophobia was the reason they
tried to kill the lot of us. Except for me, our group was so
Caucasian that this event could have occurred in Stalingrad.

I was
eleven years old at the time. That early February '45 evening the
visible city surrounding our house was ablaze. Glowing bits of paper
were sailing like leaves against the orange-black sky. We left the
house and directly ahead of us on the plaza were hundreds of people.
Japanese troops were shouting and assembling the crew into some sort
of order. (They had passed the word that they were going to shelter
us because our city was afire.)

The Author is a
Medical Practitioner, now retired, who practiced in Washington D.C..